First word came from King County Roads’ Jay Osborne at last night’s North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting, which we were covering for our other partner site, White Center Now; asked by NHUAC president Barbara Dobkin for an update on the bridge’s timeline, he said there had been some trouble with its foundation, and that “conversations” were under way to figure out how that would affect the schedule.

This afternoon, we talked with King County Department of Transportation spokesperson Jeff Switzer, who says the foundation work did indeed take longer than the contractor expected – particularly the sinking of the caissons through the hardest layer of riverbed – and that means instead of a fall 2013 completion, the bridge won’t be ready until sometime in 2014. The county is awaiting a revised construction schedule, and in the meantime is discussing how to financially help businesses and others affected by the extended period of bridgelessness. It’s already been two and a half years since the old bridge was taken out of service. In the meantime, Switzer says, demolition will start soon on what’s left of the old bridge.

Nooo… I was just looking out the conference room window at the bridge yesterday thinking it will be done a year from now and my commute will be so much faster not having to go over the 1st ave bridge. So much for that short lived excitement.

Wow that’s a heck of a delay. Now, I’m no bridge engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but they’re basically building on the site of the previous bridge, no? You’d figure they’d have a pretty good idea of what they were building on / how soft it was down there from the last bridge.

If this is a design/build project I don’t see how fault can be placed on anyone.
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If the county delegated soils investigations as part of the contract, or if there are changed conditions from what were advertised, the completion date certainly would be in jeopardy.